Single Shot Evaluation

Overall I am really happy with the end result of my single shot piece. I feel the narrative is clear and that the shot leaves room for the viewers input as to the reasons why the female figure was running away from the male figure that was clearly trying to help her.

Audio

The fact that there is no dialogue is powerful as all the emotion and story is shown through the actions of the characters. The whispering helps to show the narrative as it starts off at a slow pace getting faster and wilder as she runs showing her panic is increasing. Then as we see the males figure it quietens and softens letting us know he is not of any danger and this is reinforced with the repeated line ‘let me help you’, which makes you feel he is not there to hurt her and instead help her which is what we was hoping to achieve. Finally it softens when they are reunited to almost nothing showing the calm she now feels.

Lighting

The lighting looks great and made getting up early completely worthwhile. I particularly like the beginning where as the sun has not yet quite come over the hill the shot is a lot more darkened and this creates a silhouette of the characters. It helps to reflect the dark mood of the woman as she runs through the moors, and keeps the mystery of the man as we are kept unsure if he is there to help or hurt her. When they finally are reunited the sun has come over the hill and the brightness of the sun reflects the characters happiness and gives a reassuring feel to the viewer that now everything will be ok even if they had previously thought otherwise.

Filming

We decided to use zoom as the main camera movement due to not being able to physically move the camera once in place as it gave the effect or her running towards us which worked well. The zooms were also effective as we were able to control who the viewers attention was on at different points throughout the scene. The final shot were they are together they are placed at the edge of the shot as the sunrise is more important as it is showing there feelings for each other and providing more of a narrative at that point than the characters themselves.

Effects

The main effects used to enhance the video were the slowing of certain scenes. Firstly when she trips and falls to make the fall more dramatic and draw the viewer to her rather than to the male figure that now has appeared to be following her. The final scene where he picks her up is also slowed down to concentrate on the intimacy between them and as it is an effect commonly used in romances. I reinforced the feeling of the dark mood in my edit having the whole of the woman’s section in black and white giving it a more depressive tone. It then lightens slightly in the male’s section yet keeps him silhouetted forming an air of mystery around him. Finally I also highlighted the strength of the colour and light in the last section making the sun more obvious to reflect the happiness of them being reunited. It was also edited so that it grew stronger as he helped her up to when they finally embraced to show the connection between them becoming stronger.

Improvements

Obviously there are some improvements that could be made to the film. It would have been good if lighting equipment could have been used as it would have meant we had more control so next time with more time available we may be able to figure a way around this. It may also have been an idea to include more movement from the camera even though we were limited on choice. Next time perhaps a pan view coming down from the sky and spiralling over the moors and picking up on the female figure may have represented her confusion and panic in a more effective way. It may also have been effective to add in some close up views in black and white to of the male figure when she looked back giving a more first person feel within certain points. It would also have been effective if this was included to speed these shots up reflecting the wildness of her run and eagerness not to look back and only to get away.

Teamwork

We worked really well as a team from the start as we made our group choice after completing the irritation single shot task in our first seminar, after feeling we cooperated well and gave good idea inputs. There were regular meetings to discuss the concept ideas and then the final idea and these were carried out quickly although thoroughly to give us more time on location and the actual shot. We made a group trip to the chosen location, which worked well as we came up with yet more ideas whilst they’re progressing to what we eventually filmed. Our dedication as a group was also shown with the actual shoot meaning we had to be up at 5 in the morning not that any of us complained as we achieved what we were hoping for. The fact that we were also given roles worked well as it meant we all had an equal input into the final shoot. Working in a team is successful as there are more initial ideas to work from and everyone has there own strengths so you can achieve something you may not have done alone, however I did find that having discussed the outcomes you wanted from the film the individual editing did become more similar.